Urlacher downplays risk of taking painkiller

Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher leaves the field after being injured in the season finale at Minnesota. (Brian Cassella/Tribune Photo)

Chicago Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher acknowledges in the latest edition of Real Sports on HBO that he uses the painkiller Toradol.

“You drop your pants, you get the alcohol, they give you a shot, put the band-aid on, you go out and play,” Urlacher told interviewer Andrea Kremer. “Not that big of a deal.”

Urlacher compared it to getting a flu shot, but Kremer’s report pointed out there can be serious consequences from taking the drug, including kidney failure and gastrointestinal bleeding. Urlacher said he had been unaware of the consequences, but once he was told about them he said he would still take the drug, which masks pain from head to toe.

“First of all, we love football,” Urlacher said. “We want to be on the field as much as we can be. If we can be out there, it may be stupid, it may be dumb, call me dumb and stupid then because I want to be on the football field.”

Urlacher also said he would not admit to team medical personnel if he thought he suffered a concussion.

“If I have a concussion these days, I’m going to say, something happened to my toe or knee just to get my bearings for a few plays,” he said. “I’m not going to sit in there and say I got a concussion, I can’t go in there the rest of the game.”

Toradol is legal and non-addictive and administered by team doctors in the NFL. Former NFL center Jeremy Newberry said he would sometimes see 20 or 30 players lined up before a game to get a shot of the drug.

Newberry said Toradol “makes you feel like Superman for three hours,” but the 35-year-old now is suffering from stage three kidney failure that doctors attribute to Toradol.